Abu Hanifa An Numan ibn Thabit, a Muslim jurist was born in Kufah and died in Baghdad. He has established one of the Islamic schools of jurisprudence.

Kufa the birth-place of Abu Hanifah was an intellectual centre of Iraq. Abu Hanifah belonged to the mawali, the non-Arab Muslims who greatly contributed to the intellectual activity in the Muslim empire.

During the time of the Prophet there was no such science as that of jurisprudence. The only ideal for them was the conduct of the Prophet. They learnt ablutions, saying prayers, performing Hajj, etc. by observing the Prophet’s actions under his instructions. On occasion, cases were brought to the Prophet for his decision. Prophet’s decisions were taken as models for similar decision in similar cases.

Fiqh literally means an understanding and knowledge of something. At more than one place the Qur'an has used the word fiqh in its general sense of ‘understanding.’ In the early days of Islam the terms ilm (knowledge) and fiqh were frequently used to denote an understanding of Islam in general. This shows that in the Prophet’s time the term fiqh was not applied in the legal sense alone. The Prophet once blessed ibn Abbas (d. 68) in these words: ‘Allahumma faqqih ho fiddin,’ that is, O God, give him understanding in religion.